


Dispatches From the Data Stream

by donutsweeper



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Epistolary, Future Fic, Gen, IN SPACE!, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25712095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: The news holovids have begun to claim that the tide of war has begun to turn. The reason why might be one of myth and legend.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 12
Kudos: 88
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	Dispatches From the Data Stream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [labocat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/labocat/gifts).



> Thanks to werewolfinatophat for the beta!

My love,

This one apologizes for not sending a missive in so long; the fees for purchasing an inclusion in the bi-cendral data burst were raised again and I know you would not mind that I spend my spare chits on food and medical supplies rather than ensure you hear from me every dorthal. I hope it finds you and the children well, please give each of them a touch to the frill and let them know it's from their egg bearer who misses them so. 

The news holovids claim that the tide of war has begun to turn. While I hope that is true, I see little change in either the stream of wounded fighters or fleeing refugees coming through the embarkation port. The ships arriving are more and more ramshackle as well, sometimes their spaceworthiness compromised to the point I have seen more cases of gravity sickness, hypothermia and hypoxia in the past cycle than I have in my entire medical career. 

So many races have passed through of late, not only from all corners of the quadrant but also outworlders from places I have only read about in the bitwebs or seen in the holostreams. A few cendrals ago I even met Earthers, my love. Can you believe it? Actual Earthers! Unfortunately this one attracted their attention as they sensed my interest in them, but once I explained my degree in far planetary history they seemed willing enough to answer a few of my questions while they waited for their transport ship to dock.

They were a group of six of varying height, dermal coloring and head fur. I do not know the lifespan of their race, but they had a sense that had seen much and lived long in their time amidst the stars. They did not give their names, we did not have time to reach such levels of informality, but we had a wonderful conversation and they told me a little of the history of the planet their forebearers migrated from so many cycles ago. The stories they spun, my love, I wish you and the children could have heard them; they told of a world where ships traveled by water instead of by air or space and of a time when one had to perambulate across long distances to deliver messages by hand rather than having them appear instantaneously in one's cyber implant. 

Unlike the average non-Galaxian, their Common was surprisingly fluent, although I detected a hint of an accent on a few of the clicks; perhaps a difficulty resulting from the shape of Earther mouths? They did occasionally add asides to one another in languages my translator could not compute, when I have some time I'll have to remember to run a diagnostic on it. Through their physical features I suspected three of them were egg carriers and three sperm carriers, but of course I didn't not pry into their reproductive representation. If the manner of personal touches and eye meetings amongst their species is anything like those of other outworlders then two were a mated pair. Ah, it does this one's tired hearts good to see such things. May all who travel the vast universe be as lucky as they, and us, in finding their star match.

The Earthers were of the warrior caste, of that I am certain. It was impossible to misread the manner in which they moved or the awareness they had of their environment. Although not one to provide unrequested opinions, I did try to warn them from traveling to their planned destination of Verkurdun NineI. Despite their assumed skills the ferocity of the war and the atrocities occurring there were best avoided, if at all possible. They thanked me for my concern, but I suspect I was unable to persuade them into changing their itinerary. 

As I reflect back on it now, I realize it was only a few dorthals after they left that the first talk about the shift of the war began to trickle in. The clutch of juvenile Kaldavians had been twittering about being guided to a safe asteroid belt and away from a Gvanther patrol but I had discounted most of their ramblings since they claimed those who saved them were the Ancient Guard, and you, as well as I, know the stories told by the likes of those are more fanciful than fact. I had also put no stock in the the medical relief transport driver's story about being saved from being boarded and probably captured by unknown heroes who slipped from the stars and destroyed the attacking ship as he had been incredibly inebriated when he told it.

What do you think, my love? Did I meet the mythical Ancient Guard Champions from the era before the stars? Is there some truth behind those legends? It is unlikely, I know, but I can't help but hope it is so. For if it is true and they are out there, lending their aid in this fight, then maybe there will actually be an end to this war soon and I shall be able to return home. I miss you and the children so.

May the stars shine upon you always my love,

Your Forevermate


End file.
